In industry, it is necessary to transfer bulk materials from one location to another. This can be occasioned because of a need to move the product from one location to another for subsequent processing. Alternatively, a storage cite may be located at some distance from a processing cite, and transfer must be effected to move the product to the storage cite.
Frequently, transfer of the product is purely in a horizontal direction or along an axis that is inclined at only a slight angle from the horizontal. In such a case, horizontal conveyor belts have been employed to effect movement. In other cases, however, transfer must be made in a vertical direction. Frequently, the material must be raised from one height to an elevated location. Typically, apparatus employed to effect such vertical movement must be more sophisticated than that used in accomplishing horizontal transfer.
The situation is aggravated when the bulk material is granular in nature. The transfer of such products introduces unique problems. For example, because of the small size of particles, clogging of machine components can result. Inefficient operation and down-time do, therefore, often result.
Various types of elevators for granular materials have been developed. One typical mechanism employs a pair of endless, parallel drive chains mounting spaced buckets along the length thereof. In some apparatus, these buckets can swing freely about a generally horizontal axis with respect to which a bucket is mounted to the drive chains. Filling of the buckets results in much of the product falling into a basin at the bottom of an elevator.
More significantly, however, this type of apparatus occasions breaking or cracking of the product granules as the buckets are emptied. The drive chains run over upper and lower sprockets, and the elevator is intended to deposit the granular material in the buckets into a receptacle immediately after a bucket passes over the apogee of the elevator. Because of the nature of mounting of a bucket, the drive mechanism effects rapid movement so that, as a bucket passes over the apogee, it will be centrifugally inverted to permit emptying. The high speed of operation, however, while it affords advantages as far as emptying, frequently results in damage to the product. As previously indicated, undesirable breaking or cracking of the material can, and does, occur.
It is to these and other problems and dictates of the prior art that the present invention is directed. It is an improved conveyor/elevator device for transferring granular materials from one location to an elevated location.